blast gates with male and female connections

[Steve Tiedman]

Does anyone have a source of blast gates (4" in this case) that have proper male and female duct connection profiles/diameters? I've run a branch of 4" sheet metal duct and plastic blast gates normally aren't sized to allow use of sheet metal duct, they're sized for plastic dust hose.

I found this one at McMaster that accepts proper male/female duct joints, and I'll get it, unless someone has another sourse (no go at Amazon).

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Thanks.

 

[Kevin Jenness]

blastgate co.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

Thanks Kevin, I'll take a look.

 

[Chris Lawrence]

If your into diy there not hard to make out of 3/4 and 1/4 inch plywood. You would just buy the proper size duct takeoff collars to screw into each side.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

Thanks for the suggestions. I was about to hit the buy button but on a whim I took the crimped male duct takeoff collar fitting (left of the black blast gate) to the horn of my small anvil with a soft face mallet and flattened out the crimps a bit, creating a female end for this plastic blast gate (which I already had) to slip into. Drill for 3 small sheet metal screws to keep them mated, and voilà! Now I've got a blast gate at my chop saw.

I prefer building duct in the proper orientation- crimped male end pointing in the direction of airflow, but these plastic gates being made for plastic dust hose don't allow for that. Oh well.

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

A comment about the plastic blast gates: I have a plastic gate on my planer connection in my otherwise metal duct system where I dropped down to the machine with flex duct. The problem is that the shavings tend to build up in the blind corners to the point where I can only close it to about half way. Going back to look at your picture I see that the gate goes all the way through so that problem would not exist with that style, maybe I should get one like that.

 

[Brian Gustin]

A comment about the plastic blast gates: I have a plastic gate on my planer connection in my otherwise metal duct system where I dropped down to the machine with flex duct. The problem is that the shavings tend to build up in the blind corners to the point where I can only close it to about half way. Going back to look at your picture I see that the gate goes all the way through so that problem would not exist with that style, maybe I should get one like that.

I got similar problem with my blast gates, I semi-resolved that by cutting away (about an inch long) from corner towards middle of the formed plastic where blast gate seats in (your blind corners) with a dremel and then just have a handy dental pick on a shelf nearby so when they do get clogged up a bit I just use the pick to clean out the jammed-up dust and crud. (But then, I'm cheap otherwise I'd just go buy new/different style blast gates)

 

[Steve Tiedman]

I think this style gate is supposed to be more self-cleaning in nature compared to an older plastic gate that doesn't pass all the way like this one does, helping to keep the tracks clean(er). I only run the collector to the two lathes, and now the chop saw as well.

I also eliminated my 30 gallon metal trash can and vortex lid from the system. Over the years it wasn't collecting very much at all (mine is really a dust collection system, no lathe, planer, or jointer shavings), used a few square feet of precious floor space, contributed to the overall noise level of the shop, and as I'm finding now that it's gone, it dropped the overall suction of the system, probably from extra leakage and added effective duct length suction drop from extra bends and connections. The small 2-bag Jet is really working well now to grab the dust at the sources.